Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, has expressed grave concern over what he calls the abuse of Ghana’s criminal justice system by the current NDC administration.
Dame alleged that political opponents were being unfairly targeted while speaking to reporters after visiting NPP Bono Regional Chairman Kwame Baffoe Abronye at the CID Headquarters.
“We have seen quite a lot of grave abuses of human rights, pre-trial processes which are abused, and unlawful arrests.
“Whenever they think you are saying something that they consider offensive, they quickly arrest you. After the arrest, they band you before a court on some farmed-up charge,” he said, calling the practice “inconsistent with the democratic tenets of the nation.”
He argued that the selective application of the law posed a dangerous threat to Ghana’s democracy.
“Once they attack political opponents by using the criminal processes… members of the administration attack and abuse NPP people and other persons that they perceive to be opposition.
You did not see any violation of the criminal laws against them. Clearly, this amounts to a deliberate discriminatory application of the law,” Dame stated.
On Abronye’s situation, Dame reassured that the NPP chairman remained in good health despite his detention.
“Even though I advised him to try and eat some food, he’s still in an excellent state and confident that bail should be granted. In a matter like this, clearly a misdemeanor under sections 207 and 208 of Act 29, there is little justification for denying bail,” he added.
